Assessment of Ultrasonographic Examination for Maxillofacial Swellings

Fifty patients with swellings in the oral and/or maxillofacial region were randomly selected. Any other swellings that were caused by trauma and/or fracture, extended below the neck or patient reluctant to undergo US were excluded from the study. This study was approved by the (Research Ethics Committee) (REC), Faculty of Dentistry, Minia University before starting the research and all the entire patients had signed a standardized informed consent laid down by REC.

A comprehensive questionnaire was used to assess history and through extra-oral & intra-oral examinations were carried out and recorded on the basis of criteria reported by Das.11 The ultrasonographic investigations were carried using an ultrasound diagnostic modality (LOGIQ- P5) (GE Medical System, Korea) with color Doppler function by using a linear array transducer, operating at a frequency of (7.5-12 MHz). All the examinations were performed over the swellings and also compared to the contra-lateral/normal side whenever needed. (Fig. 1) All sonographic images were interpreted by an expert sonologist (15 years experience) and US features were recorded to extract ultrasonographic guided (USG) diagnosis and patient's swellings were categorized into five groups: inflammatory/infection/abscess swellings (Group I), cystic swellings (Group II), lymph node swellings (Group III), benign swellings (Group IV) and malignant neoplastic swellings (Group V).12 Finally, the included patients were subjected to either fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) or surgical intervention for histopathological examination to extract the histopathological diagnosis